Tag: email list

You’re invited. Only a select few will receive this invitation. A smaller margin will accept it.

Does it make you feel important when you get a special invite? Or only if it’s personalized?

More people read this blog than I know about. If you want me to know you’re reading, leave a comment. It could be one or two words. Sometimes, I feel like I’m speaking into a void.

According to the analytics, I have about the same number of blog subscribers as I do newsletter subscribers. However, when I compare the two lists, they don’t include the same people.

Why not?

Maybe you found this blog before I was a published author. I wouldn’t have been building an email list at that point.

Maybe you found this blog by following a comment I made on another blog. In that case, you might not even have realized there was an email list to join.

It could be that you like my blogs, but you don’t read books. Plenty of people prefer reading in small bites, and blog posts are best for that.

For an author, though, the list of email addresses I collect is incredibly important.

What’s So Important About It?

This list of email addresses represents my “fans.” (I use this word lightly because it’s hard to imagine anyone who isn’t related to me being a fan of my books.)

This is important to the release of any new books. I can keep my readers posted on the release dates, and if they pre-order or purchase on the release date, it pushes the book higher in Amazon’s rankings.

Authors care about Amazon rankings for a couple reasons. One, it gets their book in front of more readers who are on Amazon searching for something to read.

Another reason is to claim the “best seller” tag. I talked more about this in an earlier post. Even though I got the orange tag on the Kindle World novella I released in March, I don’t claim to be an Amazon best selling author. I explain that in the post, too.

A list of email addresses tells publishers and promoters that there’s a good chance I will sell books. It makes me look like a professional.

If I independently publish another book in the future, the list is important to help me find reviewers, influencers and have a successful book launch.

What’s In The Newsletter?

My newsletter is typically about two things:

New releases from me

Giveaways I’m participating in

My subscribers see the new covers as soon as I get them. They get a chance to ask for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. If there are sales on my books, I let my list know about that immediately.

I don’t use my list as effectively as I could for launches. Most authors send weekly reminders about these, and I don’t.

Why not? I hate to clog up your email inbox with a bunch of stuff. If I don’t have something new for you, why am I contacting you?

Maybe I’m wrong to feel this way.

If you’re irritated by those people who send you the same sales pitch week after week, I’m with you. And I strive to never be that person.

Your Chance to Sign Up

This is your chance to sign up. I’ve included multiple links to the sign-up page throughout this post. (Those would be the highlighted words. Just click, enter your first name and email, and you’ll be in.)

I don’t expect you to give me your email address for nothing. Not at all. I’m happy to give you something in exchange for permission to email you every now and again.

As soon as you sign up, you’ll get an email with a link to a free story. Recently, I sent a newsletter that included two links to freebies.

Now it’s your chance to tell me what you wished I included in my emails. Do you want more excerpts? Book recommendations? Tidbits about my writing life? (If you said yes to any of these, be sure to join my Facebook group. I’m starting to share those things exclusively with those followers as a reward for taking a chance on my group.)Let me know what you’d like to read about in the emails. Oh, and how often is too often? Would you mind if I sent two emails per month even if I didn’t have a new release or promotion?

To discover the ins-and-outs on each of those, read the full post here. Then come back to find out the next five things to know about this author gig.

Success as an indie author is ninety-nine percent connecting with the right audience.

I still haven’t found my tribe. But success can be measured by markers other than copies sold, numbers of social media followers and earnings.

Define success. Make this part of the business plan mentioned above.

Find promotions you can join that help you build your email list. Yes, you need one. Even if you don’t want to mail a regular newsletter, you need a way to let your readers know that a new book is coming, to ask for reviews and to sell copies. (This goes for traditional or indie published authors.)

The project that had me pulling my hair out was one I tackled for the sole reason of having a stand alone romance novel in print. This is the “entrance fee” for dozens of promotions I’ve seen. I couldn’t join them because I didn’t have a print book.

Building my tribe is also why I decided to write in the First Street Church Kindle World. The owner of that world is a marketing powerhouse. She leveraged her thousands of followers for us, and that’s worth signing over full rights to KDP for a few stories.

Some markets take longer to break into.

Young adult fantasy and any form of young adult literature is one such “competitive”market.

This is why I haven’t written any young adult fantasy in two years. I want to. I’m considering polishing up one of my manuscripts and submitting it to a small publisher I’ve been following for several months.

But I have to decide if that’s in the best interest of my business. If I love telling the stories I’m writing and they are connecting with readers, why shouldn’t I keep writing them?

To succeed, you need to partner with one or more influencer.

This is where I will praise Melissa Storm. She has a huge reader group that she mails to on a weekly basis. Other authors pay her to be promoted to her group.

I’m getting access to these groups just because I’m writing in her Kindle World. Since my first novella was published there in November 2017, my email list has grown from 39 to 185. Every subsequent title I publish in that world nets me more followers.

And many of these readers are connecting with me so they can review the books. Book reviews are the foundation for online sales.

The author gig requires business and marketing (sense)abilities.

Traditional publishers expect you to market your book by posting on social media, making appearances and having an email list.

You’re nothing but an amoeba in the sea as an indie author. There are plenty of readers. You don’t have to compete for them, but you do need to connect with them.

Ads on Amazon, Goodreads and in reader newsletters give you exposure to readers. Some of them want to chat with you online, and that’s what Facebook is for (as advertising here nets sketchy results compared to ads on sites where readers already visit and are looking for book recommendations).

Hire a marketing firm if you have the budget. I’ve bought several nonfiction books that outline the best practices and with each new book, I try to add another level of marketing.

It’s not my strength. I don’t even like it. But I can do a little and if I invest in the right areas, I’ll get a decent return on my investment,

It will take more than four years to “succeed” in either traditional, indie or hybrid publishing.

I haven’t arrived. I’m not a success, not even by my own flimsy definition.
July is the four-year mark of my author career. I still don’t have my first 1000 followers (what pros say you need to have a successful book launch).

I do have an impressive list of published titles. Check out my Amazon page to see them all.

Most of them don’t have enough reviews so I can join advertisers with huge lists, where indie authors find big sales and garner new followers.

I’m not giving up the dream. I have a plan and I’m working it. I’m learning to network more and refine my brand so it’s identifiable to the readers who are looking for me.

This list could continue. Each of these “lessons”could turn into a blog post. And there are dozens more things to know if you intend to be an author.

Four years ago, I claimed the title of professional writer, but didn’t see myself as an author. After all, an author needs to have a published book. An indie title that sold fewer than 200 copies didn’t count.

But it did count. All it takes to be an author is published work and the guts to own the title.

Author friends, what would you add to this base of knowledge? Reader friends, how do you prefer to connect with the work of an author whose stories you enjoy?